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Karl Sandstrom
k.sandstrom@bristol.ac.uk

Karl Sandstrom has researched Afghanistan and Somalia since 2007 with field research in Somaliland and Afghanistan in 2009, and Afghanistan in 2010, 2011, and 2012. His doctoral thesis dealt with the unintended outcomes of externally formed interventionist agendas meeting with locally shaped socio-political interests.

Sandstrom is currently finishing a 2-year research project on the relationship between aid and risk mitigation. The project is sponsored by the British Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and co-led by Professor Mark Duffield of the University of Bristol and Dr Sarah Collinson from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

It has involved a total of close to nine months in Afghanistan based in Kabul but with travel to Kandahar, Jalalabad, Herat, Mazar-e Sharif, and road travel in Kabul province. Most of the research has taken place outside of the military security system and has engaged with a range of actors in the aid and development field. In addition, the Afghan research NGO Peace Training and Research Organisation (PTRO) has provided support and conducted field interviews with communities in nine districts distributed across five provinces.

 

Contributions

Questioning the fundamentals in Afghanistan
ASK THIS | May 138, 2012
How does supporting warlords help create a stable government? Why are we counting the money spent instead of the good achieved? A scholar who has done extensive field research in Afghanistan on the intended and unintended effects of foreign aid writes that reporters are missing some of the key dynamics at play there.


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